The State’s First Black Woman Who Was Found Not Guilty Talks Out About the Tennessee Innocence Project to Bring Attention to It
BLOUNT COUNTY, Tenn.— This week, the first Black woman in the state to be found not guilty of a crime is giving a speech in East Tennessee.
The Tennessee Innocence Project is a non-profit group whose main goal is to free people who have been wrongfully convicted of crimes. Joyce Watkins is the main speaker at two events in a row.
The first event is set for July 23 at 5:30 p.m. EDT at the Landing House in Knoxville. The second event will take place at Leconte Realty in Maryville on July 24 at 6 p.m.
In the late 1980s, Watkins and her boyfriend at the time, Charlie Dunn, were found guilty of raping and killing Brandi, Watkins’ four-year-old great-niece. There was a murder in Davidson County that the courts in Nashville looked into.
For years, both Dunn and Watkins said they were not guilty. This is where the Tennessee Innocence Project comes in.
Chief Legal Counsel Jason Gichner said he knew Watkins didn’t do the crime she was found guilty of as soon as he heard from her.
It said Gichner The people who work for the Tennessee Innocence Project have to believe in the innocence of the person they’re helping. They also look into every case before taking it on.
“We need to follow the evidence and we need to put our personal feelings aside that all went out the window with Joyce Watkins,” he stated. “Because that Joyce Watkins is not likely to have done what she was found guilty of if you spend about two minutes with her.” I just haven’t met anyone who has met Joyce or spent any time with her who even remotely thinks it’s possible that she did those things. It’s just not possible.”
That’s also what Davidson County’s Conviction Review Unit found, and in 2022, the courts found Watkins and Dunn not guilty.
Exoneration is not the same as parole because it frees a person from any consequences related to a felony charge.
“When we’re talking about an exoneration, we’re talking about proving that somebody is innocent, and they didn’t actually do the thing they were sent to prison for,” said Gichner.
The Tennessee Innocence Project began taking cases to court in 2019, but most of the work has been done in Nashville, Memphis, or rural places.
“Since then, we’ve been representing folks all over the state of Tennessee,” said Gichner. “And in the last three-and-a-half years, we’ve exonerated six people who were convicted of crimes that they didn’t commit, who collectively served 147 years in prison for things that they didn’t do.”
Gischner said the goal is to help people in this part of the state.
CEO of the Tennessee Innocence Project Jason Gichner said, “To be honest, East Tennessee is a place where the Tennessee Innocence Project wants to work more cases.” “We’ve done more work in Nashville, Memphis, and some of the nearby rural counties.” In East Tennessee, there are also people who are spending time for crimes they didn’t do.
Lane Schuler, a hip-hop artist from Knoxville, is one of the people the East Tennessee branch of the group can talk to.
“I’m proud to help the Tennessee Innocence Project work to right our wrongs in our wonderful state by freeing our innocent,” said Shuler.